Television presenter Lorraine Kelly has recalled being left in a state of shock after being replaced on breakfast show GMTV while taking maternity leave with her daughter Rosie.
Speaking to Saga, the 66-year-old broadcaster described the unexpected sacking as scary because her family had recently taken on a massive mortgage after moving south.
Kelly shared the career revelation while discussing her new role as host of Saga's podcast Experience is Everything, taking over from the late Dame Jenni Murray. To mark the announcement, Kelly sat down with interim host Susie Dent, best known as the lexicographer on Channel 4's Countdown, to recount her life story and career milestones. Saga is a UK provider specialising in services, insurance, and products for people aged 50 and over.
Abrupt GMTV Exit on Maternity Leave
Recalling the moment she was dropped from GMTV, Kelly explained that having a visible pregnancy on national television was rare during that era. GMTV held the ITV breakfast television franchise from 1993 to 2010.
"Anne Diamond had been the pioneer because she had her boys and she was pregnant on air and she got a lot of stick for that," Kelly said. "And I got a little bit of that, but because social media was not around it hardly registered, so you didn’t really know."
Kelly gave birth to her daughter Rosie in June and was scheduled to return to work in September. "Crazy. You would have two months off. Now it would be impossible," she remarked.
Just two weeks before her planned return, show bosses contacted her to deliver the unexpected news. "I just got a phone call a couple of weeks before and they said, 'Sorry, we’ve got someone else. Thanks a bunch, but we’ve got someone else. So, thanks for all your work. Bye bye,'" Kelly recalled.
"That was it. I was kind of in a state of shock really," Kelly said. "It was scary because we had a massive mortgage. We just moved south. It was hard and I wasn’t expecting it. So that’s why I think I’ve always never taken anything for granted because I don’t know what’s going to happen."
To keep her finances stable, Kelly took on freelance writing jobs, including a regular column for a parenting magazine. The setback proved temporary when GMTV management contacted her several months later with a new project.
"Look, we’ve got this mother and baby slot and the sponsors want you," GMTV bosses told her. Kelly accepted the segment alongside television doctor Dr Hillary Jones. The mother-and-baby feature proved so popular with viewers that ITV executives launched Kelly's own dedicated morning show off the back of it the following January.
Lockerbie Coverage and National Breakthrough
During the interview, Kelly reflected on how her early reporting on the 1988 Lockerbie disaster catapulted her into national prominence. As a young Scotland-based correspondent, she was among the first journalists on the scene after Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town in December 1988, killing 270 people.
"It was really hard to cover it but imagine living it. Imagine what it’s like for the people," Kelly said. "What it did teach me though was that kind of trust. You know, people trusted me with their stories back then and indeed now."
Kelly stressed that building trust with individuals facing tragic circumstances remains central to her broadcasting philosophy. "That’s something that I’ve never taken for granted, I always think if people going through the worst experience of their lives come on the show to talk about that, they’ve got to go away feeling that they’ve done themselves proud," she explained. "Or if they’re talking about somebody who’s died, that they’ve done that person proud. So, I never take for granted the fact that people do trust me with that, because that’s huge. But my job is then to make sure that they go away feeling that they’ve done themselves proud. I think that’s really, really important."
Her continuous reporting on Lockerbie led every news bulletin, bringing her work to the attention of top television executives at TV-am, the original ITV breakfast franchise holder prior to GMTV.
"The boss of TVAM at the time looked up at the screen and said, 'Bring that wee girl down from Scotland and we’ll see how she’ll do in the news hour. Get her on to do 6 to 7,'" Kelly recalled. She travelled south with only a week's supply of clothes and ended up staying.
"So, I came down for a week. I only had a week’s worth of underwear, frankly. And I never really went back. I mean, I went home every weekend, you know, I commuted for years, up and down, up and down," she said.
Kelly admitted she never expected to transition into studio presenting. "I never went back to the job as correspondent, which I loved. And I had no desire, really, I’d never even thought about sitting on a pink sofa and I just sort of found myself there," she reflected. "And maybe that’s why I have lasted so long. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great job, I’ve had an amazing time, it’s been over 40 years, it’s been wonderful, but at the end of the day it is just a job."
Navigating ITV Daytime Cuts and Loss
Kelly also addressed recent structural changes and budget cuts at ITV daytime broadcasting, which have affected her flagship programme Lorraine.
"Last year we found out that there’s going to be a lot of cuts in daytime and every show has been affected, every single one, particularly my show, because instead of running all year round, it’s now 30 weeks a year and it’s obviously gone down from an hour to half an hour," she stated.
She described the shortened format as an ongoing operational challenge: "So every morning we try to get a pint into a half pint pot, which is a challenge, but somehow we manage it."
Kelly revealed that the hardest part of the overhaul was bidding farewell to long-standing production staff who faced redundancy. "The thing that was most difficult for me, it doesn’t matter whether my fat face is on the telly for an hour or half an hour, that really doesn’t matter, was saying cheerio to my team because obviously, there’s a lot of redundancies and that was really, really difficult because I know every single one of them," she said. "A lot of them have worked with me since they were kids. Now they’ve got kids of their own and that was really, really hard. It really was."
She added that returning to broadcast in January was particularly painful due to personal grief following the death of her father, who had been in poor health.
Lifestyle Overhaul Ahead of Daughter's Wedding
Turning to her personal life, Kelly described how she and her husband Steve transformed their health habits in preparation for their daughter Rosie's wedding this year.
The motivation came in March or April when her husband tried on his formal kilt and found the fastener would not close. Kelly realized her own clothing size had shifted as well. "In March/April time, my husband tried on his kilt and lo and behold, the buckle wouldn’t buckle. And I don’t weigh myself, I don’t have scales, but I was thinking to myself, 'I should be a size 10 or 11. I’m kind of looking at being maybe a size 16,'" she explained.
The couple took immediate action by enrolling in twice-weekly fitness classes designed specifically for adults over 60, focusing on muscle strength and balance. Steve, who cooks all the couple's meals, agreed to reduce meal portions.
They also eliminated late-night snacks. "We cut down a chocolate plate because every night watching the telly, we’d have a cup of tea. And it started off as maybe half a bar of chocolate or a biscuit," Kelly said. "And I can’t open a packet of biscuits and just have one. Who can open a bag of sweeties and just have one? No, that’s not right. So we stopped that completely."
In addition, Kelly quit drinking alcohol, making a single exception for a glass of champagne at Rosie's wedding reception.
"I stopped boozing. And I’m not a big boozer. But I just stopped. And don’t get me wrong, at the wedding, I had a glass of champagne, of course," Kelly said. "But I do look after myself a lot better. I take supplements. I go to the gym, I go swimming, I take the dog for a walk. It’s become more important."
